On his first night at the Thomas Fire last week, he led a strike team in Ojai that fended flames away from five homes near Thacher School.

It was a day’s work for Hayward Battalion Chief Nathaniel Armstrong, one of thousands of men and women now fighting the mammoth fire.

Buy Photo

Hayward Battalion Chief Nathaniel Armstrong, second from left, had to cancel birthday plans in Mexico to fight the Thomas Fire. His wife arranged a surprise party for him with his strike team in Oxnard Monday.(Photo: GRETCHEN WENNER/THE STAR)

But Armstrong’s deployment to Ventura County meant he had to cancel a birthday gathering his family and friends had planned in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

Armstrong, who turned 43 Monday, hadn’t done anything for his prior three birthdays, including his 40th. This was going to be the year for something special.

On Monday, thanks to intricate, long-distance planning by his wife, Armstrong got a surprise celebration with his strike team at an Oxnard hotel.

“He does so much for everyone around him,” said wife Jamilah Jefferson Armstrong. “I really wanted to do something for him.”

It’s not easy to make plans for someone working a wildfire.

When heading out for each 24-hour shift, firefighters check out of their hotels. They may or may not come back. Assignments change and deployments end based on the fire’s behavior.

Armstrong’s wife had to plan around that uncertainty from their Oakland home. She didn’t know anyone in the Ventura area, so searched online for someone who could run errands and handle a flurry of last-minute details that might fall through.

What’s more, her husband is hard to surprise.

“It’s his job to anticipate things,” she said. She queried him offhandedly over several days to figure out which hotel he was staying at.

Kathy Jappe, the helper Armstrong’s wife found, was delighted by the challenge.

Buy Photo

Fire engines from around California fill the parking lot of an Oxnard hotel, where one battalion chief fighting the Thomas Fire was given a surprise birthday party Monday.(Photo: GRETCHEN WENNER/THE STAR)

“I said, ‘I’m so in for that,’” Jappe said Monday after setting out pizza, cake and soft drinks in a small hotel conference room. “Over the weekend, it just transpired.”

On Monday afternoon, the 22-man strike team returned from the Rose Valley area north of Ojai to the Best Western Inn at Oxnard Boulevard and Wooley Road.

News of the unexpected party trickled through the group, all from Alameda County fire departments.

“She got me,” Armstrong said of the event. “It was pretty awesome.”

“That was my goal,” Jamilah Armstrong said of the outcome. “I was pretty excited that he was surprised.”

The Camarillo Animal Shelter has opened its doors to more than 400 animals for "safekeeping" during the Thomas Fire, including dogs, cats, horses, ponies, chickens, quail, emu and other species. Video by Joe Curley.
Joe Curley/The Star

The massive wildfire in Ventura County, north of Los Angeles, grew to 180 square miles and destroyed more than 400 buildings by late Thursday. It's forcing the evacuation of communities between Ventura and Santa Barbara. (Dec. 8)
AP

A Santa Paula Canyon resident and his family returned to their home on Wednesday expecting to find a pile of ash, but instead find their home spared from the massive Thomas Fire and surrounded by devastation.
JUAN CARLO/THE STAR

Southern California officials are warning of unprecedented dangerous winds on Thursday, with gusts possibly reaching 80 mph. The region is dealing with several massive wildfires that have around 200,000 under evacuation orders. (Dec. 7)
AP

Scores of displaced families people and their pets arrived at the Ventura County fairgrounds on Tuesday in the wake of the massive Thomas Fire that has swept through the area destroying homes.
CHUCK KIRMAN/THE STAR

Officials hold a late night press conference on the progression and dangers of the Thomas Fire, which started near Santa Paula and quickly spread to Ventura and parts of the Los Padres Forest on Monday night.
MEGAN DISKIN/THE STAR